CONCLUSION 273 



himself, and the indiscretions of youth and the 

 malice of age alike reach far into the future, and 

 determine the tendencies of those whom we shall 

 never see until we stand face to face with them in 

 the judgment-day. 



But evil, after all, has in itself the seeds of its 

 own decay. In a far truer sense than we often 

 dream "the wages of sin is death." On the other 

 hand, righteousness, and that alone, has in itself 

 the assurance of endless growth. The law of 

 reproduction for good reaches as far as the law 

 of reproduction for evil, and while evil tends to 

 death, good has the promise of eternal life. The 

 hope of the future is in " the outpopulating power 

 of a Christian stock." Whatever the tendencies 

 in humanity, and wherever they come from, the 

 evolution of history points toward a time when 

 man will be "no longer half akin to brute;" 

 when that law of nature whose function is the 

 conservation of that which has come from the 

 past will receive and transmit to the future only 

 that which will make for blessing. No man need 

 despair because of his ancestry ; no one by birth 

 is altogether bad ; in every one are tendencies 

 toward holiness which will surely assert them- 

 selves if the opportunity is given; therefore the 

 endeavour of all should be to live so constantly in 



